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Hack Your Life Project | Be decisive

Fabrice Calando — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 06:31:31 +0000

Taking a break… I thought this challenge would be easier, but it turns out taking a break and spending a few minutes with yourself and your thoughts usually takes a backseat to day-to-day life. And that’s sad. Taking a step back allows you to grow, recharge and tackle the challenges ahead.

I’m usually able to take 5-15 minutes each day just to think, but this past week was hectic and the time was hard to find. Luckily, I found the ideal “alone-time” space…the shower! When all else fails, use your time in the shower to reflect on the day ahead and the day that’s past; on the week that’s coming and the one gone by; on the unknown road and the one just travelled.

Did you manage to find some time for yourself?

#HYLP Challenge #8: Ban the words “I don’t know” from your vocabulary

When I was young most of my answers involved the words “I don’t know.” In fact, our neighbours kept making fun of it…it was my thing. It allowed me not to answer questions like “what do you want to eat?” that I really had no interest in answering. It might be cute when you’re a kid; when you’re older, it’s a way to avoid important decisions, to hide and to foster fear. In The 4-Hour Workweek (Affiliate link), Tim Ferriss proposes to

[s]top asking for opinions and start proposing solutions.

And that’s what we’ll do this week. When someone asks for your opinion, answer decisively. Offer a solution.

Asking for your opinion involves questions like “What do you want to eat?”, “What do you want to do?”, “What did you think of the conference?”, “What’s your solution?” or something similar. Some answers Tim recommends are:

“Can I make a suggestion?”

“I propose…”

“I’d like to propose…”

“I suggest that… What do you think?”

“Let’s try… and then try something else if that doesn’t work.”

If you use “I don’t know” as a way to postpone your answer and think about your answer; don’t. Use “Let’s think about it. How about…” instead. It allows you to take control of the conversation.

Why?

Simply put, this challenge is to take control of your conversations. Indecisiveness is a burden on yourself. Not proposing a solution of your liking pretty much guarantees you won’t like what’s going to get done. The whole purpose of the Hack Your Life Project is to take control of your life by stretching its capabilities. If we can’t give an opinion when asked, then we prefer to do the minimum necessary…

Propose a solution, take control.

Past challenges

If you’re new here, on the first week of January I started the Hack Your Life Project. Each week I challenge myself to explore the details of the programmable system that is my life and stretch its capabilities, as opposed to most of us, who only prefer to learn the minimum necessary. I no longer want to breeze through my life, but take control of it.These are the past challenges:

What is average work?

Fabrice Calando — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 06:58:29 +0000

Average work is work that comes after someone says:

It’s always been done that way
The boss wants it like that
It’s good enough
I don’t have the time to…
I guess it can be done that way
I’ll just do it quickly
Someone else will do it

No one wakes up in the morning hoping to do average work. Most people want to do a great job – no matter what that job is. Whether you’re a factory worker, a teacher, a student, a doctor or an office worker; we all want to do good. But somehow, average work happens.

Why do we do average work?

Average work is work that is OK. It’s work that’s good enough for everyone and doesn’t really stand out. It’s not that people want to do OK work. It might be that the Manager tells them to do OK work. The Manager tells them to do OK work because the VP expects normal results. The VP expects normal results because the CEO doesn’t want to be remembered for the bad performance of the company. The scenario may vary, but that’s the gist of it.

It’s not that anyone wants to do OK work, it’s that they’ve come to believe good enough is all there is.

As average work creeps up on us, the challenge is to not let it happen unless you want to be remembered for the bad performances.

(Photo credit: Timothy Tolle)

A few thoughts about passion at work

Fabrice Calando — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 06:41:40 +0000

TIMC — my new employer — asked me to talk about passion at work during a week-long workshop centered around the theme of passion. I’ve spoken about LinkedIn before and I’ve spoken about failure, but this was by far the hardest talk I’ve ever given. That being said, I’d love to have the opportunity to talk about passion again. What a great topic. Here’s a rough transcript of what I told them.

Searching for passion. Finding your passion. Looking for passion… Passion is something people spend a life-time pursuing. In fact, many of you have probably been spending the past little while thinking of what your passion is.

I know I definitely have.

Actually passion is something I’ve been thinking about since 2009 when I read Gary Vaynerchuk’s first book: Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion (Affiliate link). And as the title of his first book indicates, it’s about making money with your passion. I figured that if I wanted to “cash in on my passion” I need to figure out what my passion was…

If you don’t know Gary Vaynerchuk, he’s someone who’s built a sort of wine empire in the United States and a social media icon of sorts. He immigrated to the United States from Eastern Europe at a young age. When he was around 16 his father made him work in the family liquor store in New Jersey. When he was old enough to start helping run the store, Gary noticed the importance the Internet was taking so he added an online component to sell wine on the online, he started an online wine-tasting video show and he took his knowledge of wine to social networks like Twitter. The rest is history. He made a killing – he grew the family business from a $4 million-dollars-a-year-business to a $60 million-dollar-a-year-business in just a few years . He now also owns and operates a digital media agency in New York.

So why am I telling you about Gary? Well it all starts with where I come from. One of the greatest lessons my parents have ever given me was “never settle; do what you love.” That’s brought me down some strange paths at times. For example at McGill I started studying Psychology before studying Marketing. Also I started obsessing about the Internet and Digital Marketing back in the late 1990s. Just so you know where the Internet was at that time, Wikipedia didn’t exist, it was only founded in 2001; Gmail didn’t exist and Google was founded in 1998. In fact they spelled it Google! with an exclamation point. Actually I remember a teacher telling us, “if you don’t know what Google is, I would start using it; it’s a nice search engine.”

In other words, I was in love with the web, but most companies had no idea what to do with it and I decided to bet my entire career on it.

But then at some point, I kind of lost my way and I left the “web” industry altogether. While I was able to rectify my path and move closer to what I loved, Gary’s book really forced me to think about passion – what my passion was and what it meant for me.

Here are a few things I’ve learnt about passion so far:

Passions change throughout your life

We tend to think about passion as a something we carry throughout our lives just waiting to be discovered. And while there’s some personality traits that we do keep, passions change. When I was a kid I loved to draw. Loved it! I could spend the whole day drawing. Now? I don’t have the patience to draw a stick figure. Gary Vaynerchuk had his wine show, now he stopped it. That’s just how it is as we grow older and hopefully wiser; our likes, interests and passions change. That’s why so many people have a hard time finding their passion. Like Steve Jobs once said, “the journey is the reward” so I let finding your passion be your passion

You don’t have to be passionate about someTHING

A lot of times when people think about passion, they think about what THING are they passionate about. Am I passionate about wine? Am I passionate about hockey? Am I passionate about sports in general? Am I passionate about sailing? Am I passionate about baking? Am I passionate about home renovation?

Now there’s really nothing wrong with being passionate about something, but passion can be more complex than that. A lot of people say Gary is passionate about wine, but I once listened to an interview where he said he was passionate about building a better life for his family – wine was a way to do that. In pursing my quest to find what I’m passionate about, I’ve found out that what I really love is Personal Development. I kind of have this weird, relentless need to improve, change and get myself out of my comfort zone. To add to that, I love helping others be better – find better jobs, change their thought process, rethink their internal scripts.

Invest in yourself

Because passions change, it’s important to never stop looking and challenging yourself. As I had mentioned, I lost my way at some point. I just went with the flow without thinking about it and from beginning to end it took me roughly 3 years to get back on track. 3 years I’ll never get back. Actually after the whole stabbing/mugging incident, I noticed just how important it was to live a life you are passionate about, because you honestly never know when it can all be taken away. I know, I’m being a little dramatic, but it’s true. What I’ve done since is spend a little time each morning asking myself a question Steve Jobs said he asked himself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I’m about to do today?” That forces you to think about if you’re happy with what you do.

If you think about it, at the very minimum you spend 35 hours a week at work. Let’s say you have 120 waking hours a week, you spend around 30% of your waking life at work. Now 30% might not seem like much, but think about it. 35 hours a week, that’s just under 2,000 hours a year! If you’re going to be investing that much time in something, you’d better be passionate about it.

Like I mentioned, my passion is Personal Development: pushing myself to be better than my past self. And I think that feeling I had in the operating room is in large part because of what TIMC is at its core. I’m not sure when the last time you had a chance to look at our core values, but I’m in training so I know them well:

Our employees are our most valuable asset, and that is why we believe in a balanced quality of life.

Innovation and investment in the ongoing development of our employees ensures our growth and success.

Through an open-book management philosophy, we communicate openly and effectively as well as maintain the highest ethical standards in our relationships with employees, clients, and strategic partners.

So there you have it. My passion for Personal Development is completely related to TIMC’s core values. The only way you can develop is by being in control and pushing yourself. At TIMC you are at the centre. You can grow and evolve as you see fit. When we say “Innovation and investment in the ongoing development of our employees ensures our growth and success”… well that pretty much sums it up doesn’t it?

Thank you!

What role does passion play in your day-to-day life?

(Photo credit: UggBoy♥UggGirl)

Hack Your Life Project | Take a break

Fabrice Calando — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 06:48:54 +0000

The weekends and evenings challenge was about shutting down my mobile phone and taking control of my digital communications. Mobile phones get you addicted to “more”:

More emails
More Facebook messages
More Tweets
Just more…

You unlock your phone to see if your friend’s sent you an email, you start reading a couple other messages, you tap a link to a blog post, share it on Twitter and start conversing with others there. See how a 5 minute task just took 30? Yes, computers offer the same challenge, but phones are that much more addictive.

Although I did miss a few important calls/messages because of the challenge, I found the whole process quite liberating. It was hard at times, but I found more time for what’s important. And as a business person, what really stood out is just how much the world has changed. Consumers really have all the information in the world at the tip of their hands and businesses are barely playing catch-up.

Martin Gauthier has been participating in the #HYLP, but he’s been trying to keep the challenges alive even after the week is over. Like him, this is a challenge I’ll take on regularly. Not every week, but regularly.

How did you find this challenge?

#HYLP Challenge #7: Take a break

Still along the lines of disconnecting and taking a step back, this week I’ll set time aside for myself. In early January, I shut down the electronics an hour before going to bed, last week I locked up my mobile phone on evenings and weekends. This week I’ll set aside some time each day just to think and reflect.

Why?

The goal here is to spend time with my thoughts. No electronics, no people, no books, no magazines; just me. As I mentioned back in early January, I watched an interview with Tom Ford. Everyday he makes some time for himself to think. He thinks about what he has to do, priorities, new ideas and concepts and sometimes…he just thinks of nothing. Challenge #2 was taking a step closer to this, this challenge IS this.

And one of the best parts is, like the happyness challenge, it’s easy to incorporate in your daily life, long after the week will be over. You see, you don’t need to spend a lot of time each day: take the time when you have it. 15 minutes here or an hour there. As long as you’re completely alone with your thoughts.

This week I’ll be taking a break from everything, but I’ll be gaining a world of insight.

Past challenges

In case you were wondering, there’s not picture with this post because I use my phone to take them. No phone, no picture.

The worst (business) advice I was ever given

Fabrice Calando — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:51:49 +0000

As you move through your career, leaders and managers share some of the things they’ve learned along the way. It’s really meant to help you. Teaching and transmitting knowledge is something humans excel at. Unfortunately not all advice is great.

Years of misinformation

When I first started working, I was in a meeting with our Marketing Director where she shared some the worst advice I’ve ever heard. She said something like:

No matter how good of a job you do, in business, like in life, people will always remember the bad things you do.

I’m guessing I had done something that wasn’t to her liking. Regardless, at the time, I didn’t realize how bad it was. The problem with her advice is that it looks at average work. If the best you do is average, then yes, people will only remember the bad. The problem of course, is that average is no longer working. As Seth Godin puts it:

The mass market—which made average products for average people—was invented by organizations that needed to keep their factories and systems running efficiently. […]

Mass gave us efficiency and productivity, making us (some people) rich. Mass gave us huge nations, giving us (some people) power. Mass allowed powerful people to influence millions, giving us (some people) control.

And now mass is dying.

Don’t be average

What does that mean? Don’t settle for average. The one way people will remember the good over the bad is if you do amazing work. Relentlessly do the best work you can. Don’t settle for average and be remembered for your great work.

(Photo credit: JD Hancock)

Hack Your Life Project | Weekends and evenings

Fabrice Calando — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 06:36:04 +0000

As the week winds down, I find myself having learnt quite a bit. I’ve learnt how to organize my “to do” lists — important stuff gets done now and the rest gets scheduled out in order of priority. Here’s what you want to remember:

Specify the exact time when you’ll do the task. You know you’ll be at work from 9 to 5, you should know when you’ll do the rest.
Don’t let the “to do” get in the way of the important stuff. “To do” lists tend to be filled with mundane or long-lasting tasks. By scheduling when you’ll do them, you actually free-up time for the good stuff like writing, selling, marketing, growing, testing, trying, etc.

Keep up the good work!

#HYLP Challenge #6: Turn off your mobile phone

The second challenge of the #HYLP was about turning off the electronics an hour before going to bed. The goal was to take notice of just how much electronics are part of our lives as well as find more time. Tuning out helps to focus and rethink. This week, I’ll be shutting my mobile phones in at home in the evening and all weekend.

Why?

To put it simply, I’m always using my phone. Challenge #2 was really about taking notice, this challenge is about taking control. Mobiles make access to everything way too easy. Sure you can access Facebook, Twitter and email on your computer, but somehow all the notices that pop-up on your phone and the general easiness of a mobile make them way more addictive. In other words, computer offer more control and allow for better work.

I’ll be cutting down on the use of my mobile so that I can focus a little more on the important things like writing, reading, studying and spending time with my girlfriend.

I’m not trying to get you fired. If you want in on the challenge, but you need your mobile in the evenings or weekends for work, try having time outs once in a while.

This week, I’ll be shutting down the mobile to gain more control.

Past challenges

Back to our regularly scheduled program

Fabrice Calando — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 06:10:37 +0000

Once in a while TV stations interrupt shows to broadcast major events – government speeches, news report, weather events, etc. but soon enough they return to their regularly scheduled program. Like TV stations, after any major incident, we just hope for things return to normal — we look to return to our regularly scheduled program.

“Normal” is what we imagine our ideal situation to be or what we would like things to be — nice and easy.

There’s a crunch at work, you want to be able to leave at 5
You’re sick, you want to feel better
You’re bored, you want to be busy
…

In many ways, my last post was about getting my life back on track. I want to help you find a better job and live a better life and that post aimed to do that.

What is normal?

Winston Churchill once said

Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.

Abnormal is the critique. Your abnormal incident is not agreeable and it shines the spotlight on something that’s wrong.

What lead to that crunch at work?
Why are you bored?
Why does this bother you?

This means we can’t let a return to “normal” be average. “Normal” needs to be better than what was. Don’t let “normal” be an excuse to not do and push the envelope. Don’t waste the attention that was called on your situation. It’s up to you to learn and grow from experiences. Don’t settle for “normal”, be weird (Affiliate link).

What have you learned?

(Photo credit: Paul Bica)

Using Facebook to find a job

Fabrice Calando — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 06:23:14 +0000

Personally, LinkedIn is still my preferred site to assist with a job search. But denying the impact Facebook and its more than 800 million members can have is ignoring a powerful job finding tool. In many ways, Facebook was the site that helped me land my first advertising job. Facebook is a great way to stay in touch with friends and acquaintances…and that might just be its greatest asset. Here are a few things that have helped me and a couple more tips.

Clean up your profile. The first step is really to clean up your profile. I’m not saying you should sanitize it. Quite the opposite actually, be who you want to be. I remember when I first starting looking for work and read a piece of advice somewhere online (I think it was on Monster or Workopolis, not sure) and it read something like if you’re the type of person who has pink hair, keeping that hair will reduce your chances of finding a job. Of course if you find a job that frowns on having funky hair, you probably won’t be happy there. The same goes for Facebook, if you want party pictures, then go for it, just know that it will limit some opportunities. The question is, do you want them?
Add information. Make sure you fill in your information section — especially the career section. Much like LinkedIn, tell us what the company is and what you do there. Don’t be afraid to add details.
Friend colleagues and bosses. When I say that Facebook’s greatest asset is staying in touch with Friends and acquaintances. The great thing is you can stay in touch with the people you got along with the best or that you have a tie with. It’s not professional; it’s about sharing baby pictures, travels, TV shows and outings. Your basically keeping in touch with weak interpersonal ties and it’s said that most jobs are found through weak ties. Don’t think about future potential — yesterday’s accounting intern is tomorrow’s Finance Director. Even if they’re not in your field, they might be at a company you would like to work at. One prerequisite: Be great at something. No one want to recommend someone who’s average.
Share. Don’t have an empty profile. Share pictures, quotes, videos, others’ stuff — have fun (see point 1 for a similar “warning”)
Go on the offensive. I’ve never really done this, but more and more companies have Pages dedicated to working there. Like the Page and interact with moderators to see what’s available and ask for any advice.
Applications. Consider signing-up to apps like Branch-Out. I’ve never gotten any results from them, but why not put all chances on your side?
Be creative. I’ve talked about it before. We all remember the story of Alec Brownstein who found a job using Google AdWords. Try playing around with Facebook Ads. They have a few different options…have some fun!

Ultimately, I think patience is really going to be your biggest strength. You’ll definitely want to think about this before you need a job.

What about you? Any luck with finding a job using Facebook?

(Photo credit: photologue_np)

Hack Your Life Project | Do

Fabrice Calando — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 06:07:55 +0000

This past week’s challenge was about setting up a happyness meter (remember, I spelt it with a y for a reason). Recent events have confirmed to me that being happy with what you’re doing right now is the most important thing you can achieve. It might not have been the most difficult challenge, but definitely the most important. If you aren’t thrilled with what you’re doing now, what’s the point?

I chose to implement a metric like Steve Jobs describes in his 2005 Stanford Commencement Address. Every morning for the past week, I’ve asked myself

If this is my last day of my life, would I want to do what I’m about to do today?

I’ve recently realized just how quickly your life’s goals and plans can change and so I asking myself this question each day allows me to make sure I limit my regrets. Of course, this is something I’ll keep around all year.

I hope you were able to do the same.

#HYLP Challenge #5: Do

This week is about doing. If you’re anything like me there are a few things that are on your “to do” list and they’ve been there for quite a while now. Life can change pretty quickly and there’s really no reason to hold on to “to do’s.”

Why?

We postpone doing stuff for two reason:

They’re really not that important
We just don’t want to do it right now

According to Seth Godin, the reality is you don’t want to get more things done because

You’re afraid. Getting more done would mean exposing yourself to considerable risk, to crossing bridges, to putting things into the world. Which means failure.

So here’s the deal, if it’s not important, don’t do it or get someone else to do it, don’t let it clog up your “to do” list. If you don’t feel like doing it, schedule it. Each day this week, I’ll set aside at least 30 minutes to do things. It can be something big or something small…it doesn’t matter. What’s important is do. There always a good reason not to do something: too tired, too rainy, too cold, etc. The problem with excuses is that things might never get done at all…

This week I’ll be doing and shipping.

Past challenges

These are the past challenges:

Happiness and anger

Fabrice Calando — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:45:08 +0000

After going through a major event, like a stabbing, building a house, getting a promotion, losing a job… you constantly find yourself flipping back and forth between pretty dark thoughts and very positive ones.

You’re happy the cops got the guy; you’re angry he got to plead guilty before being able to tell your side of the story to get a lighter sentence. You’re happy that the whole thing is over and you can get back to a “normal” life; you’re angry that the whole thing happened because of something so stupid as a few dollars. You’re happy you get to continue living your great life…

It’s really a question of extremes — from really dark to really light.

It happens to you everyday

The thing is, you’re exposed to similar thoughts each day.

You’re happy for her, because she got the promotion she deserved — you’re jealous they didn’t pick you
You love your job — you’re jealous of her’s because the pay is higher
You’re happy for her, she got the courage to quit her job to do something she loves — you’re angry you can’t get yourself to do the same
You have the perfect house — you wish it was more like the one on TV
You’re happy for him, he got the top grade in the class, he studied so hard — You wish you had the top grade, you studied too
You’re ecstatic you lost the 10 lbs. — you’re upset you celebrated with a few doughnuts
You’re happy about your New Years resolutions — you’re upset you haven’t done anything about it yet
You’re happy for him, he got a public speaking gig — You’re angry you didn’t get it because you know much more about the topic

It’s what you do that matters

What I’m trying to say is that we’re all struggling with darker and lighter thoughts. It’s normal. What comes next — the most important part — is action. What you decide to act on is what’s going to set you apart. It’s not a matter of ignoring one thought or the other, it’s a matter of acting on what will make you better and stronger. Your move.

What are you going to choose to act on? The dark or the light?

(Photo credit: Mariano Kamp)

FabriceCalando.com

Hack Your Life Project | Be decisive

#HYLP Challenge #8: Ban the words “I don’t know” from your vocabulary

Why?

Past challenges

Related Posts:

What is average work?

Why do we do average work?

Related Posts:

A few thoughts about passion at work

Related Posts:

Hack Your Life Project | Take a break

#HYLP Challenge #7: Take a break

Why?

Past challenges

Related Posts:

The worst (business) advice I was ever given

Years of misinformation

Don’t be average

Related Posts:

Hack Your Life Project | Weekends and evenings

#HYLP Challenge #6: Turn off your mobile phone

Why?

Past challenges

Related Posts:

Back to our regularly scheduled program

What is normal?

Related Posts:

Using Facebook to find a job

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Hack Your Life Project | Do

#HYLP Challenge #5: Do

Why?

Past challenges

Related Posts:

Happiness and anger

It happens to you everyday

It’s what you do that matters

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